Cave Dwellers
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Travelling into Xadia would have been so much easier without having to worry about Sol Regem...


**Cave Dwellers**

_Don't remember it being as hard to get out of Xadia than into it._

It was about a month ago at this point when she'd crossed the Moonstone Path to the western side of the Breach. So, either her homeland had changed a lot in that month, or her perception of it had changed. All she knew was that when she was with her fellow elves, she hadn't had to worry about a sun dragon wanting to devour her. Or, maybe she had, and Runaan had led the party better than she was leading the trio now. Or maybe…

_Maybe maybe maybe. Too many maybes._

Oh for the simple life. Slish, slash, stick a knife into someone, call it a day. Course, a month on, she'd yet to actually stick a knife into anyone. Or cut their throat, or slit their wrists, or take an ear, or-

"Rayla?"

"Gah!" She looked at Callum. "What?"

"You okay?"

"Um…yes?"

"You sure? You've got the look again."

"What look?"

"You know, the look. Like, something's wrong, and woe is me, and everything's terrible."

"Oh, that's a look is it?"

"Um, yes. I'd know."

He would, she reflected. If what he was describing was "the look," then he'd had "the look" up to when he'd connected to the sky and done the impossible. Though she supposed she'd had "the look" as well in the period between learning that King Harrow was dead, and realizing that she was going to lose an arm unless she took the life of the king's son. So as it turned out, "the look" wasn't connected to one set of circumstances, but could be applied to any similar set of emotions.

She got to her feet. "How long as it been?"

"How long has what been?"

"Since we took shelter in the cave."

"Think calling it a cave is a bit generous."

"Fine. Hole. Shelter. Opening." She looked at Zym, who was curled up beside the fire. "Dragon hole."

"Dragon hole?" Callum asked.

Rayla scowled. "Do you know how long it's been or not?"

"Um, no? Just figure it's better to wait until sunrise." Callum gestured to the fire that was crackling away. "You sure you don't want to warm up?"

"I'm fine," she lied. She looked out across the wasteland. "Alright. Sunrise it is. As usual."

"Great."

He actually sounded happy. Which she supposed was good. He was happy, she was happy, Zym was happy…who else was happy?

Well, for starters, she had to admit that she wasn't actually happy. She wasn't happy that as soon as they'd entered Xadia, they'd had to reckon with Sol Regem – what Thunder had been to all dragons, Sol Regem was to sun dragons. A lesser lord, but no less mighty. They'd evaded his fire. Evaded his jaws. By "they," that included Zym, so either Sol Regem didn't understand that they had the dragon prince with them, or, even worse, he did realize it, and wanted to kill Thunder's heir. To take lordship over all his kind. As a child, she'd been taught to revere dragons, to consider them above the politics of humans and elves, but if her theory was true, then it was reverence that was hardly warranted. Not only was the position of Dragon King up for grabs, but dragons were potentially willing to kill to take it.

She began pacing around and glanced at the fire. Still crackling away, but ever so faintly – so little grew in the centre of the continent. It had always been an arid area by virtue of geography. When Thunder had created the Breach and brought eternal fire to the surface, it had become more so. Bad news for them, in that there was less wood for a fire. Good news for them, in that there was less light from the fire. From what they could tell, the king of the sun dragons could see as well as in night as the day. Ergo, better to travel during the day when they could see better. Could see _him _better as he scoured the skies above.

"You better be worth this you know," Rayla murmured, looking at Zym. The dragon prince gave her a look in turn.

"Don't look at me like that."

He tilted his head aside.

"Yes, like that." She knelt down, meeting him in the eye. "You know, I hope your mum's a bit more accommodating than that meanie in the sky."

He tilted his head back.

"Yeah, that meanie."

He looked at her.

"The big meanie who's breathing fire at us."

He stared at her.

"His name's-"

"Rayla?"

She looked at Callum – she'd dared to hope he'd fallen asleep, but that was too much to hope for apparently.

"Are you…talking to Zym?"

"Yes." She gave the dragon prince a pat. "He's great for conversation."

"He is?"

"Yes." She forced a smile. "He's been telling all about…well, stuff."

"Rayla, is…Zym talking to you right now?"

Rayla blinked. Zym looked up at her.

"Like, is there a voice in your head that's telling you about stuff?"

Rayla scowled. "Alright smart guy, _you _tell me what Zym's saying."

For the first time in days, Callum no longer looked happy. "I'm not Ezran Rayla."

The scowl disappeared.

"And you don't need to make up for his absence."

"I…" Rayla looked at Zym. He let out a yawn and went to the back of the "dragon hole." He gave his wings a shake and then settled down.

"Rayla?"

She didn't say anything. She just went further into the "dragon hole" herself and sat down beside the dwindling fire. She shivered, and not just from the lack of heat.

"I miss him," she said. She looked at the other prince of Katolis. "I mean, I knew I would from the moment he left with Corvus, but didn't think I'd miss him this much." She looked over at Zym. "Bet he misses your brother too."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just…the way he acts. Or how he doesn't act. Or…y'know when someone's feeling something, and you can see it, and they don't say it?"

Callum didn't answer. But she knew that he knew. He knew the look, she knew the look. Difference was, looking at him now, she couldn't see the look.

"But I mean, what about you?" she asked. "He's your brother."

"Course I miss him," Callum said. "But in a way…I'm happy he's not here."

Rayla raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, not that I'd be against his presence, but…" He pointed up to the roof of the "dragon hole." "Dragon. Fire. Teeth." He gestured outside. "Desert. Cold. Heat."

"The heat robbed you of the ability to make sentences?"

"Ezran gets to be away from all of that. He gets to Katolis, and even if we fail…well, maybe he can help stop the worst of what follows."

Something in Rayla twitched. It wasn't a jibe. She knew Callum meant nothing about it. But the notion of them failing…it hadn't entered her mind in a while. But progress was slow. Food and water was running out, and there was hardly any way to replenish either. If they died here, if Zym died here, then thousands more of all three races were going to die. And that was on top of the tens, possibly hundreds of thousands that had already perished in a thousand years of mutual hatred.

Ezran would be away from the worst of it. Least if her people didn't attempt another assassination, in which case, unless he could let loose an army of killer squirrels, she didn't rate his chances to be that high. And…She looked at Zym. There was another possibility she hadn't considered, that bringing Zym back to his mother changed nothing. Perhaps the Dragon Queen still wanted vengeance. Perhaps her people and Callum's still wanted to fight one another because that was what they'd done for a millennium.

Perhaps and maybes.

Still too many maybes.


End file.
